ASU’s defense dominates Camp T scrimmage, offense flashes to end

CAMP TONTOZONA — Arizona State football’s defense dominated the Maroon & Gold Scrimmage on Saturday in front of a packed Camp T crowd that lined the field and wove between surrounding trees.

The defensive front overflowing with returning talent looked the part, giving whichever quarterback was out there minimal time to make a decision.

There were several blitzes from defensive backs, as was the case when Sam Leavitt threw an interception to newcomer safety Adrian Wilson on one of his first dropbacks. The play would’ve likely gone down as a sack in a game setting.

“We want to attack teams. We don’t want to be dictated to. That’s something that we just believe in and the older of a group we get, the more we can do,” Dillingham said.

kenny and kent dillingham on asu accomplishing what it wanted to at camp t pic.twitter.com/Mbpc2FpwOH

— Damon Allred (@iamdamonallred) August 9, 2025

The defense’s dominance wasn’t necessarily indicative of how the week up north went, Dillingham noted. And it started to swing back the other way toward the end of the day.

“The other day in practice, the offense absolutely dominated our first live period. Like it was take this scrimmage and flip it upside down and you had Thursday’s practice,” Dillingham said. “But I think that’s what good teams do. You have a dominant day on offense, and you have an off day, then you come back and you have a dominant day on defense, then the offense scores in the last possession of the day.”

ASU’s offense didn’t have its full arsenal of offensive weapons, which contributed to the defense’s advantage.

Wide receivers Jordyn Tyson and Malik McClain and tight end Chamon Metayer were held out from the scrimmage with minor injuries.

sam leavitt’s pre-scrimmage throws to jaren hamilton, malik mcclain and jordyn tyson pic.twitter.com/8fwQQIIEQL

— Damon Allred (@iamdamonallred) August 9, 2025

Dillingham called Metayer’s situation “precautionary concussion protocol” but noted he’s already getting worked back in.

Jaren Hamilton, aptly nicknamed “Turbo,” benefitted the most from the injuries as far as reps go, as he slid into Tyson’s “Z” spot on many plays. On the last drive of the day, he caught a deep pass from Leavitt before catching a touchdown just a few plays later.

“We wanted to kind of force some other guys to build a bond. I think we did that at the end with Turbo having two nice plays there,” Dillingham said. “Looks like they are building it.”

Hamilton caught one of the day’s two touchdowns, and tight end AJ Ia, listed at 6-foot-6 and 260 pounds as a true freshman, caught the other.

Jesus Gomez and backup Carston Kieffer hit field goals from 27 and 25 yards, respectively, to account for the only other two scores.

As for the fan turnout, eastbound State Route 260 was closed off to allow for parking east and west of the Camp T turnoff, and it began filling up a couple hours ahead of the scrimmage starting. Down at the field, chairs lined the available sidelines with some fans taking to the trees to find good viewing angles.

Other takeaways from ASU’s Camp T scrimmage

As good of a day as the defensive line had in stopping the run most of the day, Kyson Brown led one drive in particular that was equally impressive.

He had multiple chunk gains in a row, including one play where he appeared to roll over a defender as he went down and could’ve kept running in a game setting.

There was even a wildcat package sighting later in the drive where Brown was at the quarterback spot with Kanye Udoh beside him and three tight ends on the field.

Brown appears to be the lead back in a by-committee running back room for this year’s Sun Devils.

First-time center Ben Coleman was replaced during the scrimmage by the younger Makua Pule. When asked about the move, Dillingham emphasized the importance of ball placement as a mainly shotgun team.

The coach said with Camp T now in the rear view after six straight days of football activity, ASU will work to simulate game preparation with three practices each week.

The Sun Devils have two more weeks of practice before that first game week, which will pit them against NAU on Aug. 30.

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